Life Postponed

Billy is a young Australian-born Chinese man, Jessie is Anglo-Australian from just outside Sydney and Jacob has Aboriginal heritage. These cultures overall create a mosaic of dark shades of illness contrasted with pastels of wellness. The imaginations of each of them are culturally grounded and often logically scientific but are sometimes blurred with thoughts and ideas that do not fit Australia's dominant cultural norms. The trio of stories shows recovery from mental distress has unique journeys but universal themes. Ways of understanding symptoms and mental health challenges as well as specific wellness strategies are wrapped in an authentic and compelling narrative. The half-fiction, half-autobiographical stories are grounded in real experiences from 4 metro health districts. Life Postponed features three diverse people in Sydney who are forced into a psych ward in Sydney during the first wave of COVID-19. The stories are based on real people and events transplanted into the chaos of 2020. The trio of new friends learn the effects of the mental distress as they are locked down on a ward then try piece back together their old life or chart new lives. Through rich visual metaphor readers who are carers or clinicians as well as general audiences with an interest in mental health will gain a better understanding of what it is really like to go through a mental health crisis. For patients or past mental health consumers, similarities will be found in each journey but there is also a diversity of experiences to aid reflection on what might happen if symptoms, systems or demographics are different. Life Postponed is a story of discovery, hope, setbacks and commendable effort to fill the many gaps in a troubled system. With lifelong trauma to be caused by COVID-19 for so many, this novel documents skills, treatment and systemic changes becoming even more essential for wellbeing.